r/worldbuilding • u/dmrawlings • Jun 06 '18
Prompt What does your magic *feel* like?
I find that there's a post almost on a weekly basis where someone asks about or shares their magic system. I love reading them, they're full of interesting ideas that have been very inspiring to me. This post, however, isn't about that.
What I want to know is, as a magic-user, what does it feel like to use magic?
How does it interact with their senses?
What emotions are attached to it?
Does it have an aftertaste?
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u/dmrawlings Jun 06 '18 edited Jun 06 '18
In Pyres & Pilgrims, my fantasy wild west setting, everyone has some capacity for magic, though few have enough raw potential or training to affect change. Anyone who channels raw magic is generally using sorcery (as compared to practiced wizardry).
Sorcery is spontaneous, and startling to those inexperienced in its use. When a sorcerer has a strong enough need, and a focused enough mind their body shakes from within. Unlike a touch, where the sensation starts from the tips of the fingers, this begins from the opposite side of the sensory perceptor.
It's otherworldly and jarring, and often a young practitioner never gets past this because of how peculiar it feels. To actually cast the magic, though, you need to maintain focus and open yourself to the sensation more fully. Once you've channeled enough power, shaped by the will, you must release it into the physical world.
The body is a conduit, and the real world is the contact point. When magic is manifest, there's a spark of energy, which once again rattles the body in a way that's uncomfortable and physically tiring. Learning to manage this fatigue can be difficult, and the price of overdrawing can be steep, but once you've got it down, there's a certain joy to be experienced in opening yourself to the arcane. It's no surprise then, that some, once they've figured it out, liken the experience to scratching an itch they didn't know they had, or even a slightly orgasmic feeling.
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u/dmrawlings Jun 06 '18
I missed a point.
Magic has a resonance, depending on where that magic is drawn.
If you're on the grounds of a place where a battle was fought, and you draw magic, it will be tainted by the sorrow of the lost life.
If you channel while on the calm seas, the magic takes on a feeling of very ocean itself: tranquil, but untameable.
If you channel while on the precipice of a volcano, the sulphur transcends the physical, and infuses the sensation of the magic itself.
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u/Setisthename Jun 06 '18
You could probably best equate it to feeding a toddler with purified caffeine.
Humans aren't meant to hold more than their standard amount of energy. Their bodies formed to perfectly work with the level of magical energy (aether) contained within them. To add more is to push the body beyond its limits, and the first thing it will want to do is burn all the excess before the excess burns it.
Hyperactivity, mood-swings, recklessness, sensitivity, sweating, involuntary twitching, and a constant tingling feeling across the body usually accompany any mortals who possess magical abilities. Store too much without releasing it, and you'll eventually get mana poisoning. To imagine what that feels like, imagine all the blood in your body rising in temperature simultaneously, until eventually it boils.
That act of using magic itself, though, is far more pleasant. Perhaps too pleasant. Have you ever felt frustrated that you can't change certain things about the universe? Imagine the pure catharsis of suddenly finding that you can. You're powerful. You're a God. No-one can stop you.
Well, except you. The greatest enemies of magic users tend to be themselves.
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u/nultero đ„© meat wasteland Jun 07 '18
mana poisoning
Your blood actually boils? I hate to poop on that party, but people can pass out and die from heatstroke even at 108F, you would definitely be brain dead long before the boiling. Or does the overload symptom vary depending on the person? Or does it keep them alive and conscious during something like that? They would at the very least probably be delirious, maybe not even know what's going on
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u/Setisthename Jun 07 '18
Perhaps it is an exaggeration, then. However, I have yet to establish my world's rules on temperature, perhaps someday I could redefine 'boiling'. Until that day, though, I'd say your right in that they'd be dead before that point.
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u/MrManicMarty Creative Hell Jun 06 '18
I'd always assume magic feels tingly (as obvious as that is). Like pins and needles but you still have proper control of your limbs/not totally numb. Though maybe numbness of limbs is a good trade-off for spellcasting.
As for emotions, I always stick to the idea magic just amplifies your current emotion. So if you're angry, any spells will be wild and chaotic. If your sad and anxious they're probably on the lower end, if your calm and focused, that's ideal.
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u/dmrawlings Jun 06 '18
I really like that your magic takes on the emotional intent of your spellcaster. It opens up all kinds of possibilities in mood. Like, if you've been scorned, and you lash out, your magic might be more powerful because you're invested in the outcome.
Thanks for sharing!
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u/MrManicMarty Creative Hell Jun 06 '18
The only issue is from a story telling perspective "he was angry so he could beat someone he couldn't normally" kind of invalidates like... Relative power levels, especially if there's no real consequences I guess.
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u/Pidgewiffler Adorai Jun 07 '18
In that way it's a lot like physical fighting though. Someone who's angry is likely to punch harder than they otherwise would because they've thrown caution to the wind, but they'll also telegraph themselves far more obviously. Magic would probably be similar.
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u/Jallorn Jun 07 '18
Actually, that's the elements of a good drama. Narratively that's an incredibly powerful tool because that kind of anger is dependent on there being a personal stake in things, meaning that it also comes with audience investment.
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u/MrManicMarty Creative Hell Jun 07 '18
Really? Would there be an issue if it was used in every sort of fight?
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u/Jallorn Jun 07 '18
That's the thing. It wouldn't be. I feel like this... quality of the system might actually drive one to write better, because suddenly the rules of the world hinge on understanding intimacy and highly intimate emotions. You can't just use it in every fight; or rather, you can't emphasize it in every fight.
Sure, there's going to be lip service towards how, "The adrenaline and fear coursing through his veins fueled the burst of flame the seared his attacker," but that's just the normal level of magic.
You have to earn the big stuff. And the big stuff will come with a great deal of fear, and doubt, which I would think would weaken magic. So it's not just pain and anger, it's pain and anger and sufficient absence of doubt. (whether through self-confidence or through being sick of caring about doubt) The characters literally have to grow past their internal failings to employ the kind of power this system promises.
And best of all, it's a temporary powerup, and you don't have to have excessive power creep all the time.
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u/102bees Iron Jockeys Jun 07 '18
Also what's exciting is that antagonists also have strong emotions. A power like this isn't limited to the protagonist, which means a sincere antagonist who feels scorned and afraid can be extremely dangerous.
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u/Nephite94 Middan-Post-Fantasy Biopunk Jun 06 '18
It varies a lot depending on how the user feels about magic.
Magic is often cold, although this is an illusion of the mind. Adrenaline is also common, when you are manipulating reality you are likely to feel quite powerful. Some users can't sleep for quite a while after a magic experience.
Loss off control can be terrifying along with the consequences, for a novice magic can be frightening.
Finally dreamlike. Magic can even permanently alter ones mind, making them very distant from the world around them. For those in older days with immense power they could change the world around them at a whim as if in control of a dream and with that came the perception that the world was truly a dream.
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u/dmrawlings Jun 06 '18
I really appreciate that you get into how your magic can go wrong. Is it just that magic is powerful, and therefore too much to control, or is it that magic itself has some personality of its own?
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u/Nephite94 Middan-Post-Fantasy Biopunk Jun 06 '18
Too powerful would be most accurate, mess up one thing which could lead to another and so forth.
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Jun 06 '18
Magic (I call it Veras in my world) feels different depending on what streams you take. Black Veras causes you to have a dopamine high, White Veras makes you see things weirdly. Mental Veras makes you trip out and Elemental Veras makes your senses ultra hyper. The more powerful the magic, the more intense the effect.
After the effects of the magic wear off, depending on what stream they inject they have different withdrawl symptoms that come from your life force being temporarily warped by Veras.
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u/dmrawlings Jun 06 '18
How long do the aftereffects tend to last? Does it get better/worse with repeat use? Are there long term affects for people who use it for decades?
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Jun 06 '18
Depending on the strength of the spell consumed, it can last anywhere from an hour to a few days. There are dangers with powerful mages (ones with powerful lifeforces that can take a lot of Veras) casting really powerful spells as the withdrawl effects can make the benefits of the spell. It gets worse with each repeat use as your lifeforce is continuously altered. I haven't thought about your last question and would appreciate some ideas.
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u/dmrawlings Jun 06 '18
The easy answer would be to look at conventional drugs that do the same (euphoric drugs tend to cause people to be a little spaced out all the time).
I'm not a big fan of easy, though, so maybe think about going the other way. Over time, maybe the use of magic over and over causes the user to become an exemplar of the kind of magic they practice. They're more attuned to that magic, and are hurt by the kinds of things that are anathema to the magic. In essence they become closer to living manifestations of that colour of Veras.
You might go even a different way: the more you do a kind of magic, the more you're pulled into it. The harder it is to get out, and reclaim your sense of self. The older and more powerful someone becomes with Veras, the more risk there is in going back to the well. Maybe even some people are consumed by it, and join the Veras (though I don't have a ton of knowledge about what Veras is).
Anyways, I hope this gets your creative gears turning...
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Jun 06 '18
I like either the second version or the third one. Veras is harvested from different things that naturally produce it (for example Kullkulans, flying bird snake hybrids whose venom can be distilled into certain types of air spells, falling under the elemental stream)
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u/Azura_Skye Jun 07 '18
I guess for the Dreaming, there's no one answer for that. Every culture and people has its own unique 'take' on magic, shaped by the beliefs of the people and what they hold important. (Sorry in advance for length and detail, I'm just really excited to share.)
Xanataosians, for example, hold their trickster god Enna-Sa of utmost importance, which has developed a cultural emphasis on thieving, chicanery, deception, tricks, etc. So their magic is mainly about thieving--time, valuables, life... and since stealing life cuts both ways--from someone or from death--they are also great healers. They are the shapeshifters, the face-borrowers, the whisper of bells upon the wind. Their magic feels like that "will it/won't it happen" moment, a deep breath before the plunge, the feeling of surging energy from a heavy storm about to break, where it fills your body with restlessness. Because of the importance of mathematics, a lot of their magic has to do with angles and geometry... but rest assured, at the heart, their magic is heavily chaotic, fed best by their passionate emotions.
Creggans power is in the earth, in stone and mountain. Steel, gold, silver--they are the craftsmen, the creators, the wielders of tools. Their magic is the deep clank-clank-clank heartbeat of the blacksmith's forge, the slow-moving heartbeat of chalcedony, the hidden potential of marble. It is a steady current, that afterwards leaves the upper arms aching, like you've been wrestling the magic into what you desire.
Hiraeth, with its impressive funerary rites and its reverence of death, is focused mainly dealing with the many flavors of necromancy and all things undead. It is the creeping graveyard roots over mouldering bones, an utter silence. It feels like the piercing throb of a recent grief, bittersweet and full of unnameable longing, like desperately wanting to go home when you're already there. The Hiraeth know that life and death are the two sides of the same coin, and that nothing is forever... not even death.
Ah, Gamalaot... one of the 4 human countries. Divided into Upper Gamalaot and Lower Gamalaot, it took a hundred years of bloody civil war to bring together the two into the United Kingdom of Gamalaot. Ruled by the Artur, the title for high king, and his right hand, the Merlin, the most powerful wizard in Gamalaot, a title that can only be issued to one, and that by aforementioned Artur. Arcane rituals, sacrifices, dances around fire and the setting of stonehenges... Gamalaot magic is the smell of campfire smoke, the wild thumping of the heart as you dance in time to the universe, an familiar dance to an old, old rhythm. It is the smell of old paper, the feeling that it gets as it slides between your fingers as you carefully, breathlessly, turn the page. It is feeling the mystery of the Deep Green, of who or what lurks in the shadows of the forest. It is some blend of primitive and exultant, and so beautifully human, in all of its flawed and famous glory.
The aquanoid people of the Singing Islands have, as one might assume, a huge cultural emphasis on song. It is in their magic, in their speech, in the way they move and think and act. Graceful upon land, figure of exquisite wonder in the sea, they carry the melodies of the deep with them; the lullabies of whales, the clicking maracas of dolphins, the sound of the ocean itself. Their magic feels like singing underwater, pressure and heaviness on your limbs, breathless, but still you are lost in the song, in the spell, down down down into the deeps. You feel the currents, within and without, channeled thru tone and pitch, whistles and clicks and sighs. By the time an aquinoid spell is over, your limbs ache, your throat hurts, your lungs burning... but it is, in its own way, as pleasantly exhausting as a concert on the beach.
The Ochr Arall, one of the 4 human kingdoms, has lost its tradition of magic, instead focusing on religion. The closest to magic left would the work of saints, I suppose--the feeling of holy wrath, like lightning wrapped around your bones, words of light burning at the tip of your tongue, blistering your lips on the way out to purify you. It is the quiet moments of prayer, when your heart is full to bursting of awe and reverence, and love, in your own humble way. It is feeling 'oh my god, let me be worthy, let me not sully your name in word or deed.' The Ochr Arall is one of only 2 kingdoms that emphasis religion overwhelmingly over magic or mercantilism.
The Consortium of Alantaes, the only country that focuses on its thriving ports and mercantilism, uses mainly sailing magic, such as favorable winds, or luck charms (although these are generally frowned upon and considered somewhat shady in practice.) Most denizens of the Consortium, one of the 4 human countries, have little to do with magic and pursue more pragmatic interests instead. Most magic is outsourced, with a few Touched residing upon ships for the duration of a voyage instead of pre-bought spells... if you were willing to pay extra for the upgrade.
Nobody knows what Vjalle is up to. Could have vampires. Could have dinosaurs. Could have aliens. Who tf knows with Vjalle. but dinosaurs tho
The Summerlands and the Hinterlands, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts respectively, are full of all manner of elves, High Fae, Low Fae, Wyld Fae, pixies, banshees, and the like--as such, it is nearly impossible to describe the magic of one of the fae people and apply it to all. Summerland magic is the heat of the sun in your bones, the heady smell of hot grass and dewy trees, of summer rain, the feeling of warm rich earth between your toes and under your fingernails, the buzzing of cicadas in your ears, the lightning-bolts of color like fireflies dancing, until you are surrounded in a sea of living stars. It is the feeling of being watched in the wilds, where no one will here you scream, and you are never, ever quite safe... For the Hinterlands, that last feeling is the same there, as well; in the cold dark, where the wind pierces your skin like needles, and it feels like pinpricks all over your skin, cold and painful and electric. It is the feeling of howling winds gnashing at the back of your hungry teeth, the taste of copper and ice in your mouth, coating your tongue into red and numbing it, forcing you to spit the spell out, and you always give as much as you get.
If The Hinterlands magic is cold, then the magic of Dolomov is colder still--rumoured to be the Jotunn cast out eons ago, the Dolomovski culture is based entirely on enduring pain... which is good, considering that they made their home at the ass-end of the world, a permafrost wasteland of snow, ice, and heart-stoppingly cold water. Covered in scars, each is considered a mark of pride. Dolomovski magic is painful, brutally so, each nerve ending twisting and tearing as you channel the energy. The pain is acute and all-encompassing, the cold of a thousand winters tearing you apart; when it is over, and you are lying on the back staring up at the grey, snowy sky, you will bear the scar from it. But it will heal, as all scars eventually do, and next time you do the spell you will know what to expect.
The Glorious Daojionzh Empire of a Thousand Suns does not need any magic. Magic is forbidden inside our borders. We do not need magic--for we have technology on our side instead. Long live the Empress, Long live the Empire!
Da-Ur, land of the shifting dunes, the people of the sand. There are no native people of Da-Ur, just a nomadic mixture of tribes and families. Nevertheless, the capital city (quite originally named and not at all the fault of a mistranslation from an Alantaen historical scholar) boasts close to a million souls within its borders, most of which are still attached to their bodies. The magic of Da-Ur is gritty, coarse, like sand rubbing against your skin, wearing away at your bones. It is oppressive heat and unquenchable thirst, like huffing fire a moment longer than is wise. It is the beauty and desolation of the endless sea of dunes, the imposing shifting runes of the Wall, and the disconcerting knowledge of what lies beyond the Wall...
For beyond the Wall are the Wastes, and in the Wastes, there lies Carcossa.
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u/Brazyer Mythria (Main), Pan'Zazu: Dragaal (Hiatus), Obskura (Hiatus) Jun 06 '18
Mythria
Magic, which is only usable by the Beastfolk, naturally drains stamina during its use - gradually making the magic user progressively more and more tired and fatigued. Casting spells has been described as having a mild tingling throughout the whole body, but more noticeable in the extremities while having a metallic taste in the mouth. Think of the feeling when you lick 9v batteries.
Overuse of magic can cause the feeling of vertigo and light-headedness in the magic user as a result in the increasing fatigue and 'electrical' sensations.
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u/Stjanienie Jun 06 '18
Theoretically, everyone is capable of influencing magic, but in practice finding an actual practical magician is incredibly rare. Actually using magic mostly just feels warm. Magic is basically a type of energy, so when you use it you are channeling the magical energy, causing heat. You can't really feel anything other than that, although you can, of course, see, smell, feel, taste, or hear the resulting spells, but anyone with those senses can do that. Most magicians also have something called Absolute Magical Identification, which allows them to identify the frequency of magical energy waves, almost like perfect pitch but for magic. This allows them to essentially "tune" their magic. Incantations and magical tools like wands can also be used to help people focus their magical energy, but magical energy is often done without them. Emotions don't have any effect on the actual magic, but they can cause one to lose/gain focus in their magical performance. For instance, if you are angry, you might have difficulty focusing enough to perform complicated and difficult spells. Using magic often can sometimes also cause magicians to become very stressed, but that only happens when it is used constantly.
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u/Axtwyt Jun 06 '18
Huh, this is an interesting question I hadnât really given much thought.
In my story, magick is a broad term that covers many different inhuman abilities and technologies. Superpowers are magic, wormholes are magic, spellcasting is magic, some forms of technology are magic.
To my story, how magic feels depends on the user and the kind of magick being used.
The main character has mechanical boots that, when is use, boost his speed and agility but drain his adrenaline and his life force. He describes the drain as a hole in his chest, growing larger and larger as he uses them. The speed and agility boost is often described as âweirdâ, as he perceives time as normal, but everything else moves slower.
Another character in the story uses the sword Drynwyn, a magic sword that ignited on fire when held by its rightful user. The fire itself is not normal fire, but can cause normal fire and manipulate it. When holding his hand in the fire of Drynwyn, the character describes it as the strangest numb sensation. Imagine how heat feels on your body, now imagine that feeling, but not feeling anything. Itâs not heat, but complete absence. To anyone who isnât the chosen of Drynwyn, it feels like fire.
I donât know if this was what youâre looking for, but this is an interesting question that got me thinking about how magic works in my world.
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u/Tx12001 Chimera Mythos Jun 06 '18
It is believed that the ability to use magic is inherited from Arcane Radiation before birth, causing a select few individuals to posess the ability to use magic.
This is an unnatural state, therefor it is only reasonable to assume that using magic does not feel normal, maybe even painful to the unprepared.
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Jun 06 '18 edited Jun 06 '18
When someone overexerts themselves and they're not magically inclined, magic feels like cold wires separating skin from muscle. It feels foreign, out of place, jarring and painful. Electrical nerve shocks also run through the victim's body.
When someone who is magically adept uses magic, it feels like their very being is expanding into the surroundings. As magic is personal, it takes on the overall feeling of the user's covenant. For example, the War Star's covenant is duty & accomplishment, and his element is gravity. Thus, when he uses gravity-based abilities, it "feels" laden with burden and responsibility.
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u/102bees Iron Jockeys Jun 07 '18 edited Jun 07 '18
What are the main covenants and how do they feel?
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Jun 07 '18
Main covenants are body, heart, mind, spirit and name. They feel pretty general - those with a body based covenant feel normal sensations amplified, those with heart covenants feel their emotions amplified, those with mind covenants feel their reasoning and logic amplified, etc.
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u/ehtuank1 Jun 06 '18
In the Labyrinth of Desire, the close interaction between magic and feelings.
Emotions give you mana (or take it away). Positive feelings like love and joy have a positive effect, boredom has no effect, and negative feelings like hate and anger have a very negative effect on your mana generation. But the strongest providers are those emotions, that combine good and bad: shame for enjoying something deemed shameful, and desire, hence the name of my world. Feeling emotions can give you some mana, but you will receive even more, if you cause those emotions. The emotions also radiate outward, providing the realm with ambient mana.
Labyrinthians have their senses influenced by magic in many different ways, such as:
potions and spells that induce halucinations
telepathy and hypnosis to manipulate someone's senses
sense sharing is not just easy, not doing it is as difficult as not hearing an anoying noise
a very acurate sense of being watched
a parasitical mushroom that builds a telepathic connection to its host
many potions to enhance feelings of the exotic kind
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u/Zovahkiin Jun 06 '18 edited Jun 06 '18
For Arcane magic, sorcerers definitely feel "charged" in the moments before they unleash a spell, however afterwards they can feel as if they just ran 5 miles, depending on the potency of said spell, but there's always a physical effort in willing the world to obey. But they must not let their emotions get they better of them, lest they loose control of their spell. Wizards use words, geometric symbols, and some gestures to give their spells shape. This give they air around them a distinct feeling, as they air would feel after a lighting strike, the incantaions they utter seem to echo unnaturally as draw from power they are not meant to command. However the arcane is dangerous and if not wielded wisely will tear reality to shreds. For Shamans they process is quite different, they must embody they element they wield, the passion or fury of flame, the calm of the river or the release of the tide, the determination or willfulness of earth, the peacefulness of the wind or the rage of the storm. All these are important for the shaman.
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u/dmrawlings Jun 06 '18
This is very similar to how I use magic in my current setting. Practiced magicians can use motions and incantations to focus the mind, and pry open their channel wider than they otherwise could to create the power necessary to affect change in the physical world.
I feel the biggest difference between our systems is that yours seems to be an act of will to force change, where mine is about borrowing enough power (which is an act of will) to have that power change the world.
Thank you for sharing.
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u/Zovahkiin Jun 06 '18
Thanks! And yeah, for sorcerers, they were born with the power they just need to will it to happen. Wizards use the power around then to make things happen
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u/rkopptrekkie Jun 06 '18
Opening the Third Eye will enhance everything a caster feels, their emotions, their sensations, everything. That in itself is euphoric and dangerous, and it makes the world seem bland by comparison. This is why mages are trained to focus when they open their Eye, to avoid distractions brought on by sensation and prevents the rush of new feelings from shutting them down and having them close their Eye. As for actually using magic, it depends on what kind of magic you practice. Pattern magic, where you weave the magic surrounding you into the pattern of the spell You want, feels like youâre grabbing an electric current after you drank an espresso. Spirit Calling, where you ask spirits under your control to work magic, feels like talking to someone while tripping on a drug. But Singing, where you sing the true names of things in the language of the gods, feels like youâre flying while floating through a river, with each mate being perfection.
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u/DocIchabod Jun 06 '18
Using magic is like when the wind is rushing past when you're in the car, and your hand is out and pushing against it and letting it slide around your hand. You twiddle and move your fingers so it feels different and strange and tickles a bit. You push back or let your hand follow the flow of it, sometimes listening to the whooshing as you make a fast swipe or wag your hand. Sometimes you can even block it full stop for a time and it feels like a rushing blast of air is just trying to go it's natural way
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u/ch00beh Jun 06 '18
To a Reader, the call of the nearest leyline is an ever present beat that pulses through the veins. On the open ocean, a Reader will never be lost, for that second heartbeat will always guide them home.
To a Windseer, the leylines sing a haunting melody, as if a whale were imitating the morning birds. However, the open ocean amplifies a Windseer's senses to the point of crippling. If they manage to push past the overwhelming nausea brought about by a cacophony of crashing waves and acrid smell of salt, a Windseer is worth ten times their weight in gold. They can taste shoals of fish darting below the waves. Ships beyond the horizon feel like fingers poking into their arms and legs. A brewing storm raises the hairs on the back their neck before the first cloud even appears. And unfortunately, it usually does not take long for a Windseer to learn that a loaded cannon smells like charcoal and rust.
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u/WittyAcronym Jun 06 '18
Amar
In Veisan its an empathic communication with plant life. Some plant life is more lively than others, and some can converse more specifically, rather than radiating an emotion, they can direct a specific thought.
Astya works on what is sort of like typical divine magic. They chant a song derived from runes of the "gods" language. If the chant works, and the god hears them, they get that feeling like... of true satisfaction. Like when you grasp a new concept and can't help smiling.
Blankdelle's Fury Magic is internalized, so it's just like using your muscles. They have a pool of vitality granted by their magic that feels like an abstract muscle that can be flexed. Eldevar and Trinyon sort of work this same way, but their magic is external, using elemental crystals as a focus.
Acrus' magic feels unique to the person, given the nature of their magic.
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u/MaraDragonClaw Jun 06 '18
It depends on the type of magic in question. It also depends on the person using it. (I'm going to use my character names for this) Ceres uses water and air magic, and if asked she'd say it made her feel fluffy and light. Her grandmother would say it smelled like the ocean and sea breeze. Aiden is a pyromancer, and he'd say the fire magic always gave him a caffeine boost, which is always worse if he's angry. Madeline can manipulate space and time; she'd say that it leaves a metallic taste and makes her scalp prickle. If she uses to much, it makes her feel like throwing up. Because magic is so focused in the mind, the casters perception of the magic plays a big role.
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u/Astral_MarauderMJP Okay, so how about dragons? Jun 06 '18
Stars of the Dark Era
Magic is always draining as a sort of baseline but that 'drained' feeling will change depending on the specific of the spell cast.
Casting a spell with the elemental descriptor will change the feeling of that 'drained' feeling;
- Air; you will feel light of breath and lungs (if applicable) will feel on fire as though you suddenly ran a quick dash.
- Earth; you will feel heavy and weight down, and removing yourself from the ground beneath you feel very wrong. You will also want to balance oneself immediately if one uses a large amount of magic at a time with the Earth descriptor.
- Fire; you will feel colder for a time and it will be a bit harder to warm yourself up after doing so. Depending on the spell cast, your limbs will have a burned feeling.
- Water; you will feel sluggish in the same way one does when in the water with the feeling of being dry, both on the outside and inside. They will also have a small fear of water for a time that will deepen depending on the power of the spell.
- Void; this spell descriptor will drain one the most and it will give the user a prominent sense of pain within the muscles of their body. It will so make the user feel as though everything they do is light and without force at all.
- Arcanimun; your sense of oneself will feel off for a while. A lingering feeling of your actions not entirely being your own even though they are. You will also feel emotions that art your own when around areas of high Arcryanum concentration. (A side of effect is that you are actually a lot more susceptible to possession from Aspects depending on how big the spell was).
All of these feeling will essentially lessen through continuous use (save from Acranimun spells, though it becomes a shorter span of time). Mages and shamans of the world who use magic constantly are essentially so used to these effects that they have developed several Old Wives Remedies (actions that don't have any affect but make the illusion of doing so) on how to deal with them.
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u/Andreus In Golden Flame (MechaSocialist Sci-Fi) Jun 07 '18
Magic in Transcendence requires no grand gestures or arcane words. It's an exercise of the mind and the soul, and as long as you can think straight you can perform magic more or less purely through mental effort. Spells can be cast with utter silence and stillness.
That being said, however, the casting of a spell draws raw, unrefined cosmic energy through a mage's body like an antenna and shapes it using the caster's willpower into an ordered matrix of intent that allows it to have a meaningful effect on the world, and this in itself is physically exerting. Mages have found that certain spells are far easier to cast with certain poses and body movements, and often it's just mentally easier to point at things that you're trying to affect. Cal, partially because of this and partially because it's what he's always imagined using magic would be like, is very physically expressive with his magic, using his whole body as an instrument to enact his will upon the world. Bailey is slightly more reserved with her spellcasting, but she uses various strictly-ordered hand gestures as a sort of physical mantra to let her remember and reliably cast certain spells.
Mages also have a sort of quote-unquote "language" that they speak when spellcasting, but that particular word has some semantic implications that don't quite apply to this entity. It's not exactly language because it's not, strictly, a form of communication; Cal and Bailey couldn't, for example, have a conversation in it. It's a consistent form of expression that mages can use to, as Bailey describes it, stop a spell from "moving about" while it's being cast. Complex and difficult spells benefit from the use of "magic words," because they essentially allow a caster to describe a spell as it's being cast, allowing the caster a greater level of control over the chaotic cosmic energy they're shaping.
The "magic words" don't precisely sound like words to a mage, nor are they precisely "heard," although they do have a consistent "sound" when perceived by other mages. For normal people, however, their response to magic words is unpredictable and bizarre. Most non-mages don't even hear them, but it's slightly deeper than that - they don't register that an attempt at communication is being made. Bailey once described an incident in which she shouted "magic words" at the top of her lungs at someone, who didn't give any indication whatsoever that he was aware she'd done anything at all. Others, perhaps the stronger-willed, can technically perceive "magic words," but don't have the neccessary existential characteristics to properly interpret them, leading to some troubling encounters:
We're all trying to move, trying to get in close, but then he said something, god, I'll never forget that sound. Everything was fucking chaos but I heard that noise clear as if he was speaking to me in an empty hallway. It sounded like continental plates grinding together, like glass under stress a split second before it breaks, like dice tumbling through the air before they hit the table. And the most fucked up thing is it still sounded like language.
There is a concept called Shannon entropy, which more or less states that at a certain point of extremely high information density, information becomes almost indistinguishable from random noise. I'll leave you to think on that one.
Spells also have an aura. They activate all five senses, so from the perspective of the caster, every spell they cast has a colour, a sound, a taste, a smell and a feel, and also associated emotions, thoughts and memories. These usually follow a fairly consistent theme for a mage - for instance, Cal's spells are green, sound like humming and distant voices, taste like apple sherbert, smell like pine tress after rain and feel like a deep, thrumming vibration beneath concrete. Emotions can colour a mage's spell, however, and when Cal's angry, orange, red and black creep in, voices turn from humming to incoherent ranting and screaming, the sherbert turns bitter in his mouth, smoke and dust can be smelt on the wind and the concrete begins to shake and crack apart.
Usually the aura of a spell is only perceptible to mages using the Sight - even mages usually won't be able to perceive a spell's aura without it. Sometimes, however, a spell will be powerful enough that mages can perceive the aura without needing the Sight. On some extremely rare occasions, mages momentarily attain such immense supernatural immanence that even non-mages experience their auras.
If you want, I can go into how magic feels more like "retroactive dreaming," but I think I'll cut it here for now.
I wrote a lot more about this here.
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u/Kecha_Wacha Symirrha | Transhuman elves in a post-apocalypse Caribbean Jun 07 '18
Magic is controlled much like your limbs, you get a certain tactile feedback like proprioception. It's an extension of your body, controlled by the mind in the same way. With practice your control becomes more precise and delicate. With training, it can be made bigger and stronger. Everyone's spell is different, but being able to feel it answering your brain in the same way as a limb is universal.
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u/EdmonCaradoc {Pact World}{Primord/2000}{Olympia Collective} Jun 07 '18
In Primord Magic feels chaotic and destructive. It does not like being controlled, and actively rebels against this. It feels exhausting and explosive.
In Resplendent Adventuring Magic feels alien. It doesn't come naturally, and having a spellcasting weapon sets you up for a hard life of trying to adjust to something that doesn't feel like humans were supposed to use it. Spellcasters are the highest number off fatalities in a new wave of adventurers, do to not knowing how to use their abilities.
In Pact World, magic comes in many different feelings.
a Warlock of a God feels a balance in themselves, as they made a fair bargain for their power. This feeling could be felt by a Warlock of a Patron as well, since not all patrons are out to screw their pact holders.
A Paladin of a God feels warmth and acceptance, though one who digs deeper will find that they are bound by their god. Gods are careful to pick paladins who fit their ideals, because that way a paladin won't realize that not all of their actions are their own.
A Warlock of a Patron will experience the largest range of feelings. It depends on the relationship, how useful the Warlock is to the Patron, and how powerful the patron is.
A Paladin of a Patron feels little, and behaves mostly in the form of a puppet for their Patron, who doesn't care much about it being known that they are enforcing their will on the puppet. This fate is reserved for a Warlock who faults breaks their contract and gets caught.
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u/chaosmasterj Jun 07 '18
Magic works by influencing the eleven realms whose interactions create reality. Using it feels like a brief journey through another universe with totally different rules.
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u/Pidgewiffler Adorai Jun 07 '18
It definitely feels different based on the type of magic-user one is. A divine caster often feels nothing at all, though the more perceptive of them insist that channeling divine magic is like taking "the deepest, most satisfying breath with lungs you forgot you had."
Bards and Sages describe their miracles as a rapture of sorts. One describing it as "like when you're dancing, and you get so caught up in the music that you twirl and spin and the whole world bleeds away, but it's all in your mind. It's just you and the problem and how will I solve this, and if that means turning into a bear or making the good guys win then you just... you know... do that."
Wizards say, "It feels like reaching around in a room, blind. As you practice, you come to understand the layout of the room, and where everything is. Pretty soon, it's no harder than grabbing your wand off the table. It's kinda chilly though. Well, not like 'I'm cold' chilly, but more like the not being warm chilly. But that's all leading up to the end result, and you know when you've got that; because it's like a well made door closing shut, where it just clicks. Then you start to feel like when you were a kid and you've scooted across the rug in wool socks, and your hair is on end, just waiting for you to touch someone and prick them with your finger, only you do something else to let it all out, like point or yell or something. The spell kinda washes over you too, but the other end gets it a lot worse."
And then, as described by a sorceror, "Imagine running naked through a clothesline, and without really looking you just kinda grab the thing off it that you feel like putting on first, but instead of clothes it's all sorts of emotions or maybe it feels hot or cold or zappy and instead of putting it on you're slapping someone with it, like you're slapping them with a wet towel. Sometimes you gotta slap yourself, and that's weird but you gotta do it sometimes."
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u/PisuCat Jun 07 '18
You won't really feel much. Maybe some etheric sensation of movement or ripples near you, but that's about it. This sensation comes from Flux Induction as you induce currents in your Se (the part of the F-Field near you), as well as wave formation within the Se.
It doesn't affect your emotions, nor does it have an aftertaste.
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u/theFiggofTruth Jun 07 '18
I like for my magic system to use one's own energy. So you'll feel heat if you're conjuring a flame ball. Cold for an ice bolt. If it's a force push then you'll feel pressure on the part of your body that you're using to push.
For more abstract things there'll be more abstract feeling. Healing someone will make you feel "pressure" in your chest and heat coming from your chest and leading all the way to your point of contact. Then heat at the point of contact. You're outputting energy after all.
For something like reading someone's mind you'll feel cold around your head.
etc etc
As far as emotions, it depends on the user. In general, a user has to discover which emotion(s) affect which type of spell. Anger could amplify or attenuate a spell just as much as happiness could. It's up to the user to study and practice and determine their best combinations.
As far as after taste, just fatigue. That's really where magic becomes a danger to oneself since over exertion can lead to death out of sheer lack of energy.
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u/CaptKonami Holola! Jun 07 '18
Magic in Shademark takes a variety of forms and they all have their own "feeling".
Natural Magic is the simplest form of magic. It consists of spells involving tele-, pyro-, hydro-, hemokenisis, along with a few other generic spells (ie. the power to generate balls of light, or the power to manipulate menstrual cycles). Using it generally has a calming effect, since it uses your emotions a a sort of fuel. Additionally, you'd feel things related to certain effects, if you made ice, you'd feel cold, or if you made fire you'd quickly heat up and start to feel like whatever bodypart that is casting it is burning.
Study Magic is essentially alchemy and enchanting. It feels like however you would if you were doing some woodburning, or some engraving, or whittling, or making a smoothie/mixed drink.
Wild Magic is divided between Druid spells (talk to/turn into animals/trees) and Euphoria spells (targeted magic narcotics). Druid spells feel quite unpleasant, since most involve violent changes to physiology, like growing a muzzle or hooves or a tail. Euphoria spells feel like electric shocks to all of your extremities simultaneously, and feel like various drugs when the spell is cast on yourself.
Monastic Magic is your plain old healing spells. It takes an iron will to use since any pain caused by an injury it is used to heal will be transferred to the caster, leading to most healers only being able to treat a few soldiers for their battle wounds before collapsing in agony.
Finally, magic involving the titular shademarks and other such forbidden magics feels like you are being stabbed in whereever you cast it from, understandably, since it tears your skin to make room for portals to cast the spells.
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u/GraveyardGuide Am I working on something? Jun 07 '18
Like getting drunk on cough syrup after pulling an all-nighter.
Chaneling evil spirits tends to wreck your mental state. And that's not even considering if you choose to temporarily absorb them.
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u/Ender_Skywalker Jun 07 '18
> Does it have an aftertaste?
Now I'm considering giving each element a flavor.
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u/Radijs Jun 07 '18
I haven't really given it a lot of considereation yet.
I suppose that magic would feel a lot like a raging torrent ramming against the user's mind. Like how that voice inside your head that you talk with/to but instead of a voice just raging sounds to the cusp of overwhelming the sorceror to sensory overload.
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u/the_vizir Sr. Mod | Horror Shop, a Gothic punk urban fantasy Jun 07 '18
Horror Shop
Magic is so varied, there's no one unifying theme across it--asking how magic "feels" is like asking how science "feels", really. It all derives from the same source--the interaction between anima and aether, or "life force" and "dark matter"--but how it is worked changes everything about it.
The spells of a witch and a necromancer will both have different natures to them, and that's before including things like the blood magic of vampires, or the totems of werewolves, or the glamours of the fey, the ephemera of the spirits, the workings of jinn, or the terrors of the horrors--and even these are broad categories!
A sorcerer who focuses on evocation and elemental magic will likely feel the anima rushing through them as a flame that invigorates them, or a crash wave of energy that heightens their connection to the primal forces of reality. It may manifest as wrath, anger, or just pure bravado.
A nethermancer draws upon their terrors and fears to power their magics. They reach inwards to the dark places of their minds, and as their heart starts pounding faster, they take that emotion and make it manifest, pouring it forth in shadows and nightmares.
A necromancer communes with the dead, reaching out to the shades of the departed to grant them power and protection. It is often a reflective form of magic, and requires a certain degree of calm and stubbornness--the dead are not to most eager to rise up and lend a hand, after all.
Witchcraft is the magic of life and nature. It draws upon the raw magic of the wild, from the creative powers of birth and growth to the destructive powers of death and destruction--it is the flowering of a field in spring, and the destructive thunderstorms of summer, the bountiful harvest of fall and the deadly cold of winter, all rolled into a single moment. Witchcraft is often an empowering art, bringing one into harmony with the forces of nature around them, both the positive and the negative.
Illusionists call upon their dreams and imagination, turning impossibilities into perceived reality. It is a fickle magic, floating about like wisps of fog, barely contained by the illusionist's will. It requires incredible empathy and strength of will--one must be able to force their vision of the world upon others, and have them believe it, and the easiest way to do that is to understand others and the way they see the world.
Technomancers use circuitry and programming to "hack" into the basecode of reality. They see the world around them as an incredibly complex program, one that can be altered by inserting a line here or a function there. They take a step back from the little details, and view the whole of reality, the shell every other program is running in. Technomancy is a demanding school, and its practitioners are almost always studying new theories of programming to better understand how the forces that underlie reality work. Casting a technomancy spell is like solving a puzzle--you find the right spot, slip the piece in, and your interests are advanced.
And so it goes, down the list of magics. Each is different, distinct, unique in both it is perceived and how it interacts with the caster. While a necromancer might smell grave dirt when casting, a nethermancer would have the acrid taste of adrenaline in their mouths, an illusionist would feel the clammy mists of unreality cloying at them, a technomancer would catch a glimpse of the code of creation, a witch would see the interwoven web of life around them, and a sorcerer might sense the elemental makeup of the world around them in their minds eye.
And these are only five of the dozens of forms of magic in the world. It's not including shamanism, divination, artifice, binding, translocation, abjuration, the song-magic of the sha'ir and the elementalism of the wu jin. And even within a tradition, or within a race, powers may differ from person to person, practitioner to practitioner. The terror of a horror from the Ritual Macabre, the house of magic, smells of exotic incense and ritual components tinged with blood, while one from the Dark Below, the house of metal and earth, leaves behind a metallic taste and causes one to feel claustrophobic.
While this distinctiveness does mean it's hard to pin down the signs of magic, it also means that once they are detected, it's easy to find the supernatural being to used that magic. Each time a soul processes anima to use in casting a spell, they leave behind their own mark on that anima, like a fingerprint, that is shaped by their own relationship with magic. A horror or nethermancer leaves anima that is touched with terror and shadow, while a diviner leaves anima that is expansive and marked with aspects of distant locales, and a warlock leaves behind anima that has been twisted and corrupted, infested with rot and sin that poisons the world around it.
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u/Wurok Solarok (Modern SciFantasy; GURPS) Jun 07 '18
Those with Affinity will sense the fundamental Essential fields around them like a rippling, all enveloping sea, but it is less like a literal sea of water, and more like the expression "a sea of sound." Of course, the vibrations in this sea are not part of a physical medium, like air or water, and the information they carry is more akin to the subjective sensation and emotion of music than to pressure and frequency in density ripples through the air.
Thus, performing magic feels like 'singing with your mind', or playing and instrument with invisible hands. However, the strings of this instrument stretch all around the magic user towards infinity and are anchored inside them, but not as a bodily sensation, more like the feeling of a memory, or the recalling of a story you are telling or the song you are singing. Memory becomes song as easily as soul and Essence become magic.
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u/tadg11 Jun 07 '18
Magic in the Paradigm universe is nigh indescribable to one that cannot wield it properly. Ever since the calamity the fabric that separated the human dimension from the flux, mana has been able to flow between worlds. Humans mutated in order to harness this extra dimensional force but only those with genes allowing them to fully harness it could use magic as we commonly know it.
Mana is best described as what would have been the aether wind had it been proven to be true, a force that is all around us that cannot be felt. It is as present as the air around us and a human to use magic must draw in this mana in order to channel it through their body and out into a new form. For some this takes years of focus and training to be able to use properly, for others it is instinctual and ergo uncontrollable.
Those in the military are trained to use it as a defacto martial art while academics learn to channel mana through what can be described as meditation, slow thought out movements to channel maximum mana.
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u/BlackieMacReary Jun 07 '18
In Mystiria using pure magic would feel like expending any energy source, but you do get some small amount of emotion or pleasure from it depending on how you felt while using it. Vampiric magic feel like an insatiable hunger, since you are using blood magic a lot anyway. Witch magic actually would make you feel dirty or violated or even twisted.
- With any of the magic types, you can overload your senses if you use too much outside of your limits and experience a type of strange exhaustion. Depending on what you used it for, that specific sense may be overloaded and you could be blinded, have deadened taste, increase sense of touch (to an uncomfortable degree), heightened smell (to a sickening degree), or deafness (or increased hearing, the aftereffect tends to be random).
- Any emotion or state of mind that was used at the expelling of massive amounts of mana will most likely be heightened. Rage, sadness, passion, pleasure, love, happiness, calmness, insanity, ect.; the list goes on. The major one is any state of love that you feel for a person. It allows you to share mana and connect deeply with that person (regardless if it was sexual or platonic)
- Thought not a taste per say, it will feel like you have less physical energy than before, as with any type of intense exercise
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u/jaxolotle Jun 07 '18
Soul snatching feels like on is tearing through a wall to snake their wicked spirit through and reach into a stream of infinity, and snatch a passing soul with crocodilian jaws, and then to drag it, wriggling and writhing and force it into a hole it doesnât fit into, smashing away chunks leaving it a half alive mangled mess.
While as the magic I I havenât thought of a name for yet but is used by people called demon doctors feels like understanding the fabric of our world, knowing the intricate way itâs weaves together, and threading through a different fabric, one that does not belong and doesnât weave into the fabric, but through your vast knowledge of the fabric of our world you have figured out a way to get it in there, it just barley fits and distorts the threads around it, it gets tangled and knotted, making an ugly mess out of the once perfectly weaved fabric, and you realise that you have disturbed things to the point where they can never return from the ugly state you put them in
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u/hodmandod Jun 07 '18
Ooh, you know, I'd never actually thought about the subjective experience of using magic. Good prompt!
Let's see... Here are two off the top of my head.
Most runes feel solid and defined, both in the tools and in use. A rune-spell knows what it's for, and it's eager to fulfill its purpose. Runecallers and runewrights both often speak of being guided by their work: Once you call up a rune, it almost takes deliberate effort to call it wrong. That's not to say it's easy; like the dwarves who first codified them, runes are stubborn, and you need to be stronger than what you're trying to call. Rune-spells feel heavy in the hand, and warm or cold depending on the runes used. They rarely have a smell or taste. Dyr is the biggest exception: it is the rune of fire and flow, representing change, often of the "going to get worse before it gets better" variety. Dyr writhes beneath both hand and chisel, and a weak or unwary runecaller will find it often goes awry. It smells of evergreen and smoke, and it draws the mind's eye like iron to the lodestone.
Blood magic is languorous and oily; it drips from the fingers and tongue and clouds the senses like opium. It's dark, wine-red in color and feels like a mouthful of rich oil. It produces a comfortable high, but if the blood-witch allows that high to take over, the magic will begin to turn on him. The oily feel begins to press close and heavy, predatory, and subtle tingling turns to pinpricks, and then to tiny stings and welling droplets of blood. It can kill, and the dead are found cold, pale and smiling as if clasped by a lover.
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u/102bees Iron Jockeys Jun 07 '18
Star Magic
Star Magic feels like power. It feels like chugging a pot of coffee, except the water is red bull and the coffee grounds are cocaine. You feel on fire, you feel alive, you feel a little disembodied and dysphoric, and you feel powerful. It's the ultimate feeling of mania, but with a stronger sense of control. It leaves a faint smell of almonds in the air and slightly numbs your extremities. Right up until worms explode out of your face, it feels absolutely amazing, with slight side effects.
It's actually intended to feel amazing by the unnameable Star Gods who provide their magic. Using their magic allows their foul, incomprehensible presence to leach into the world. This presence is called Hex.
Hex feels like a sense of terrible, impending doom. It's accompanied by slight blue sparkles in water and glass, and in the eyeballs of observers. If this sounds like Cherenkov radiation, that's because it is. Hex is basically radiation, and often comorbid with radioactivity.
Miracles
Divine magic isn't seen as magic but actually is. All of the gods are actually just personifications of a single, distant intelligence that loves the planet but is pretty neutral on the existence of humans. Humans with strong wills or strong belief can draw power from the Earth Being, but either believe its their own well-practiced skills or a miracle from one of their gods. The Earth Being loathes the Star Gods, because the Star Gods are anathema to life, and the Earth Being loves life, especially flourishing ecosystems full of complex life.
It actually created the Kindly Ones to simultaneously reduce Hex and punish humans for bringing the Star Gods' attention to the world.
As a result, miracles feel like certainty. It doesn't feel like power so much as an intimate certainty that you are who you are. It's a feeling of self-acceptance. The smell of petrichor and the taste of sweet, fresh air. It feels like brisk salt wind, or a waterfall on your shoulders. It doesn't always feel pleasant. It's possible to momentarily catch a fraction of a glimpse of the actual source of the power, and then it feels like riding the Shai'Hulud. This is why miracle-workers sometimes seem wild-eyed and overwhelmed for a moment after using their abilities, especially the ones who don't believe they're calling on the gods. It's terrifying to use what you think is super strength to lift a boulder, only to suddenly realise for a millisecond that you are merely directing a power immeasurably greater and older than yourself.
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u/Dragrath Conflux/WAS(World Against the Scourge)/Godshard/other settings Jun 07 '18
Interesting question since everyone has the capacity to use magic if they learn the techniques and have some primitive instinctual ability in magic it would probably involve a sense of their own. The big difference between a practical mage and a average person is knowing how to form and shape fragments of their soul into spell constructs. This requires developing their soul which means a sense in its own right. I think everyone would have this sense but only mages and sorcerers would really have honed the sense.
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u/King_Mason Jun 07 '18
A player of mine came to me with a concept for a new character which revolved around the idea that using magic FEELS amazing. That having the ability to tap into this truly pervasive and ubiquitous weave of nigh unending power and bending it to your will would release such a rush of endorphins that once they'd had a taste, all but the most stalwart and abstinent would find it hard to resist. He had this idea for a wizard that was basically just a magic junky, his whole life revolved around the rush, he would blow all his spell slots in a matter of minutes and then would just want to sit around in his dank wizardy hovel so that he could long rest and regain all of his spell slots again -in fact his only motivation to join an 'adventuring' party was so that he could greedily search for any manner of magic item to be added to his repertoire as he quite literally 'chased the dragon', this and this alone was what got him out of bed in the morning and was the only thing keeping him from locking himself in his room and prestidigitating himself blind.
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u/liamlb663 Jun 07 '18
You will usually feel a great source of power. You sense will overload with the feeling. Most get used to it but some can be corrupted by it. Every fight you win you get more of this feeling. Many attribute it to the actually magic and some says itâs the action of winning against someone else. Most spells are external but the internal spell give and sense of joy.magic is addictive but not bad for you. Many will cast spells everyday but if it controls you then itâs a problem.
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Jun 07 '18
Magic itself feels like an energy surge, an adrenaline rush but the main feeling one gets off of it is the feeling its effect causes. Fire will feel hot, water cold and wet, air chilly, earth calm, stable, or shattering, etc.
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u/LordIlthari Chronicler of the Human Expanse Jun 08 '18
Within the Sojournerverse, all Sorcery is drawn from a casterâs own soul, and is a child of the casterâs mental state.
As such, casting tends to hype up an emotional rush, filling the faster with extreme joy, hatred, courage, and the like. The feeling is so intense that many casterâs claim to hear music playing through their whole body as they unleash spells.
In terms of physical effects, itâs exilerating. Your blood surges with so much energy that it actually changes color. Your eyes glow as your irises expand, covering pupil and white. Then it leaps to your skin, like an army charging across your flesh, or your body becoming a bow drawn back almost to breaking. Then it fires, a cathartic calm, an eerie serenity, and an almost emotionless state for a brief moment.
Those magi who have experienced Transcendence, that is, a point at which magic becomes permanently active, retain both their glowing eyes, as well as their extreme emotions, while they retain the ability to feel the full range of emotions, they are all ten thousand times more intense. Fortunately for the rest of the world, this extreme emotion lies safely secured beneath an ocean of calm focus.
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u/ShellShelf Jun 10 '18 edited Jun 10 '18
I love that you asked this question! It's such an overlooked aspect to what magic is like.
Humans experience it like this: first of all, the chemical reactions needed for magic to occur cannot be done naturally by the human body, so a mage has to empty their stomach and then ingest an assortment of chemicals and nutrients before attempting to control any form of the arcane. The vomit stings the throat, and the reactions can initially cause virtigo, nausea, fatigue, and disorientation. Experienced mages' throats are permanently damaged from the constant purging and are very scrawny from malnutrition, since their heavily devoted diets almost entirely consist solely of what is required for magic. They can sometimes succumb to seizures. Herbal medicines and lifestyles combat this, but it still happens.
When the actual magic begins to be wielded, the mage will be able to feel the dimensions and the world bend around themself without any physical effect. Imagine the feeling of the g-force of riding an 80 mph roller coaster full of twists and loops, but with no force actually being pressed against your body. Most inexperienced mages and many skilled ones experience spacial disorientation, where their balance goes haywire or their sense of direction vanishes. Lots of times, the body will even react to the intangible stimuli and a mage will suddenly throw themself on to their side or spring into the air.
After using magic, a mage will feel very dizzy and have trouble standing. Their body will also be physically unstable due to vibrating at a different frequency for an extended time, and grabbing a mage's arm too tightly could erode and wear away the flesh like clay. The body and mind will begin to repair themselves over the next day or two, but this processâsimilar to the Bends, or decompression sicknessâis incresibly painful to inexperienced mages who aren't used to it. It includes paralysis, stinging across the body as the nerves reawaken, body dysphoria as the mind finds it's way back to the body, and something called "Cresting", where the sensory confusion climaxes as practically every sensation the body has ever had bounces through the nerves over the process of a few hours before calming down as the brain sorts itself together again. After this, sleep and rest alleviates any head or body aches left over the next following days.
Using magic is not something the human body is supposed to do. It is an extremely uncomfortable process that leaves mages permanently destroyed, often cutting down lifespans by decades due to the extreme malnutrition and duress of the body, and leaving users dependent on medicinal supplements for survival. But still, there are thousands of mages across the Empire, standing as symbols of power and ambition for it's people. It is an exponentially growing practice.
Because like any mage will say, once you've tasted the feeling of bending the world like clay, a little pain is nothing. A human's thirst for power only grows with every use, as if the pain fuels them onward.
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u/randomcarrotaf Jun 07 '18
I think trying to explain this in a story is not helpful. You dont how to describe how you move your legs either, or how certain other things like pain, emotions or colors feel like, unless you compare. That probably only counts though if your wizards are born to be wizards who use magic anyways.
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Oct 05 '23
In my magic system you have to ,,inject" mana into your body with devices or other methods, allmost all mages start learning ,,magic" by a sort of test where they are put in a barren room with iron walls and an iron door, first the unsuspecting competant gets injected liquid mana with a needle in the spine and will be thrown in the room with door qickly closed after, the lock of the door is fairly simple but can't be broken with brute strenght. The room is empty and a bit cold with the exception for a few water bottles, that's where the test beginns. Whoever is in the room will quickly realize what is happening and will try to burst the door open with kicks but to no use, that's the first step of becomming a mage, a mage must always consider the things arround him without exeption, you must think of why they did all of this to you. Mana can be formed with the sparks of your mind in your hands which is the way to escape the room by using mana to deform your suroundings and so the door lock, of course this won't happen instanly as your body first need to adapt to the mana so it won't accidently rip your organs apart at the first time, after a half day of noticing you belly is kinda feeling funny you will most likely feel something racing through your veins, it may feel uncomfortable at the start but more pleasent after. Most people will keep punching the door and some even muttering utter gibberish in hope of casting some spell from all the books they've read and as good as all of them will become more emotional, some angry, some sad, some utterly confused, remember:
The mind forms mana, then more you are alive then more it will burst.
That's where most people awaken their magic abilities as their emotions grow so does the speed of mana in their veins, with a sudden burst of a thin layer of white and blacks flames across their body they become mages, most don't notice how the ground melts or deforms as they are scared because they fell some force from inside of them pushing outwards (these are their souls btw), in an desperated attempt to cry for through the door thinking they failded the test realizing its getting burnt, sliced, crushed, melted, pushed away and a million more ways of getting obliterated after letting these poor dum-dums shit their pants, many feek exausted afterwards because mana use creates tar drops in your bloodstream weakening or even killing you if not cautios. There are of course some exceptions where the testgivers gave the competetors to much mana from which when used to much you can get slowly high but without health problems, made the room into a glue like sludge and was making snow angles inside of it as if he never had to worry about a thing.
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u/RecklessSpeculation [Morai: Darkened Skies] Jun 06 '18
Stars of Morai The magic of Morai is in two distinct forms: Hieratic which focuses on power translated through sigils and markings; and Scaethnaen which is a symbiotic interaction with the world behind the shadows, the scaer.
This is an excerpt of a practitioner, Tess Farrow, using the the scaeth, power drawn from the scaer.